Fluid ejection devices, such as printheads in inkjet printers, provide drop-on-demand ejection of fluid drops. Inkjet printers produce images by ejecting ink drops through a plurality of nozzles onto a print medium, such as a sheet of paper. The nozzles are typically arranged in one or more arrays, such that properly sequenced ejection of ink drops from the nozzles causes characters or other images to be printed on the print medium as the printhead and the print medium move relative to each other. In a specific example, a thermal inkjet printhead ejects drops from a nozzle by passing electrical current through a heating element to generate heat and vaporize a small portion of the fluid within a firing chamber. In another example, a piezoelectric inkjet printhead uses a piezoelectric material actuator to generate pressure pulses that force ink drops out of a nozzle.
Over time, the ink used in a printhead can cause corrosion that degrades the printhead and reduces the print quality of the printing system. The ink can etch silicon in the printhead, resulting in harmful silicate precipitates in the printhead nozzles and on the printhead firing resistors.